Day 24: From Jericho to Jerusalem

Before Jesus rides into Jerusalem to begin Holy Week, he goes through Jericho, where he meets a short tax collector named Zacchaeus, who is not only short, but universally disliked by everyone else in town (probably becomes of what he does for a living). Zacchaeus wants to see Jesus so badly that he climbs a tree, and Jesus surprises evveryone by inviting himself over to Zacchaeus' house for dinner. I mean, really! Why couldn't Jesus have gone to the house of one of the deserving people!!!

Zacchaeus responds by offering to give half of his possesssions to the poor, and offering to repay what he has cheated four times. He must not consider money quite as important as he once did. Or perhaps he thinks that now he is rich, but in a different way....

The following parable (which is similar to Matthew's Parable of the Talents) also deals with money. Where Zacchaeus distributes his money to the poor (redistribution of wealth), the parable ends by stating that 'everyone who has will be given more, but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away.' This is a scripture verse I've had a problem with since hearing Billie Holiday sing, "God Bless the Child." It seems to fly in the face of the extravagant grace-giving God that I encounter in other portions of scripture. I'm doing a little background study, and I'll get back to you. In the meantime, anyone who has an idea about this verse, let me know.

Jesus enters Jerusalem then, to cheering crowds and grumbling Pharisees. He weeps over Jerusalem, and then clears the temple. The house of prayer has become (in my version of the Bible) a house for crooks.

In Jerusalem, Jesus gets right into controversies, with Pharisees, Saducees and other legal experts. We have heard this before, and how he figures out how to answer every question, and confounds them all. He also tells the story of the tenant farmers who reject the son of the owner of the vineyard as well as all of the messengers he had sent before.

The stone that the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone, Jesus quotes Psalm 118. A fitting entry to the next few days.

Day 22: Good News if You're Lost

May I say that the middle chapter of these three makes everything else in the other chapters in Luke worth it?  There are many difficult things in Luke, as there are in Matthew and Mark.  But the sheer grace of chapter 15 -- the images of the father with his arms wide open, the woman searching everywhere for her coin, the shepherd looking high and low for just one out of 100 sheep -- make every difficult saying worth it.

There's one catch though, you have to be lost.  If you are a wandering son, a coin gathering dust in a dark corner, a sheep out in the wilderness, Luke chapter 15 is good news.  If you are not lost, or you don't think you're lost, well, you might not understand what all of the fuss is about.

I notice reading these familiar stories again that the wandering son doesn't get to say his whole speech before his father interrupts him.  (The part about "treat me like one of your slaves..." the father does not let him say.)  I noticed that the woman who finds her lost coin goes out and has a party once she finds it.  Presumably, she spends all the money she worked so hard to track down.  huh.  What did you notice?

A few words about chapters 14 and 16.  Chapter 14 has some to do with table etiquette.  The first "parable" Jesus tells doesn't seem too much like a parable to me, actually.  It's just instructions about where to sit and who to invite.  The second parable is another version of the one we heard in Mark, about the landowner who has a party and discovers that his invited guests are no longer interested.  Then, Jesus changes the subject to "the cost of discipleship" -- Jesus warning potential disciples to count the cost before following him.  Considering where Jesus' path will lead, it's understandable that Jesus would warn people.  On the other hand, it's just the opposite of clever marketing. 

Chapter 16 has two parables with some disconnected warnings between them (it seems to me, anyway).  The parable of the dishonest manager has made commentators scratch their heads and do theological contortions for about 2,000 years.  The idea is that the manager is dishonest, but clever.   Jesus seems to think that disciples need to be creative and clever and that this is a part of faithfulness.  But, it makes us scratch our heads.  (and, I'm open to more suggestions on this parable).

The last parable is famous to some -- the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, the poor man, and how Lazarus goes to heaven (the bosom of Abraham), but the rich man -- doesn't.  If you're Lazarus -- this is good news.  But if you are the rich man -- it's pretty sobering.  It's worth noting that the crowds that originally heard this parable would have been shocked when Jesus told them that the rich man was tormented in Hades.  They would have assumed the opposite.  Also, it's pretty unusual for the poor man to be the one who gets a name, and for the rich man to be anonymous.  Usually, it's the poor who are the bit players in history, and the rich who get the starring roles.

But, not in Luke's "orderly account." 

I'll admit, I gravitate to Luke's concern for and attention to the poor.  But then I also have to admit, that I am not one of the poor.  I may not be rich, but I'm not poor.  Does it make a different how I hear Luke's words?

Day 21: Teach us to Pray, and Die, and Live

So chapter 11 begins with Jesus teaching his disciples the Lord's prayer.  (You may want to turn back to Matthew, chapter 6, for another version of this prayer.)  Only in Luke's Orderly Account, the disciples observe Jesus in prayer, and ask him, "Teach us to pray."

I love this.  (I think that I love the simple, but not easy, sentences in scripture, sentences like "Love your enemies."  "Pray without ceasing."  "Jesus wept.") 

Luke just keeps reminding us not only that Jesus saves, but that Jesus prays.  Afterwards, Jesus tells a story about a man who goes to his friend in the middle of the night begging for bread.  Even if the friend doesn't want to get up, the noise of his friend pleading from out in the courtyard where everyone can hear will finally convince him to get up and give him what he wants.   (This is another one of those stories unque to Luke.) 

If you remember Jesus saying really recently, "Whoever is not against us is for us" really recently, you might be surprised that now Jesus says that 'whoever is not for me is against me.'  However, this is a different situation, when Jesus himself is being accused of using the power of the devil to cast out demons.

Jesus speaks out against the Pharisees here in Luke, but it doesn't seem quite as over-the-top as in Matthew somehow.  And please note, that at the end of chapter 13, it is some of the Pharisees who warn Jesus about Herod. 

It's interesting to me that Jesus places the warning about the unforgivable sin in this section of Luke, in the middle of his warnings about persecution, and at the same time as he assures his disciples that, when persecution comes, the Holy Spirit will give them the words to speak.

Another parable that only Luke tells is the one about the man with many barns, who accumulates a lot of "stuff" and then finds out it won't help him in the world to come.  Afterwards, is the familiar teaching about the birds of the air and the flowers of the field.

And in chapter 13, the story of the  bent-over woman (another healing on the Sabbath) only Luke tells.

The fig tree parable might sound familiar from Mark, but notice that in Luke, Jesus is willing to give it another year to bear fruit.

I also like the story about the faithful servants who the master finds hard at work.  Did you notice that in the end, the master will serve them?

What are some of the details and the larger themes that you are noticing in Luke?